Paint-Filled Bubble Wrap Takes Pixel Art to an Entirely New Level

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When you look at a photo (or any image on a screen, actually) you may not realize that what you are looking at is a collection of so many pixels. For example, the screen of the laptop we’re using to write this has a size of 2560 by 1600 pixels, which means 4,096,000 pixels are right in front of us. We just don’t realize that because the amount of pixels causes the images on the screen to look natural, like a real-world object.

Some artists use pixels in a more artistic way, though, downsizing their scale to create purposefully low-resolution images to pleasing effect. Michael Fischler is a pixel artist as well, although he does it in a more tangible way: instead of using a computer, he injects paint into large sheets of bubble wrap to create his paintings.

The time lapse video above shows his process, which involves using a bunch of different colors and needles to create his works of art bubble by bubble, sealing the paint in its bubbles and providing a background with a layer of black spraypaint.

The company from which Fischler buys his bubble wrap posted an interview with him about the painting featured in the video above, in which Fischler points out the the bubble wrap only comes along pretty late in the arduous process, which actually starts with more traditional, computer-based pixel art:

“The bubble wrap is really the last step in the process. Where the creativity comes in is finding the right image to do and then making that image into what I want to express. With American Girl, there’s a brightness that Laura radiates and that’s what I tried to capture. Using Photoshop and several other programs, I try to capture that essence. Then it’s just a process of breaking the image down into its colors and their locations within the image. Once that’s finished, I can then begin the process of injecting the colors into the appropriate bubble. All in all, it took me three months (about 300 hours) to complete the picture.”

Fischler also scores a victory for bubble wrap purists, putting the air-filled packing plastic back on the wall where it belongs: bubble wrap was originally supposed to be a type of wallpaper, after all.